Drama Group

film was in colour, and although technically below Western standards it succeeded in giving a surprisingly frank and convincing picture of Moscow life.

On 15th February the Reverend Alex McGovern came to give the Society a talk on his recent visit to Russia. Although he was only in Russia for a week, the speaker managed to recount many amusing and interesting experiences, though unfortunately time did not allow him to continue for as long as everyone would have liked.

It was decided that, since music has played, and continues to play, such a large part in Russian life, the Society should get to know something about it, and so Mr. Waine was invited to give us a talk on Russian music. The meeting took place on Monday, 29th February. Mr. Waine played records of a great variety of works by numerous composers, and once again we found that we were rather short of time.

The last meeting of the term took place on Sunday, 20th March, when the film 'The Kuban Cossacks' was shown. This was a Russian film in black and white with Russian dialogue and English subtitles, a comedy about the exploits of two rival collective farms at an agricultural fair. The sound was better than that of the previous film, and there was some excellent photography in it. We should like to thank D. A. Taylor for operating the projector on both occasions.

In addition to these events, two small groups of enthusiasts have been meeting fairly regularly to sing Russian songs and study a oneact play. The results of these activities will, we hope, be in evidence next term.

Thus we can look back with considerable satisfaction on our first session. Not the least of our achievements, moreover, is the fact that as a Society we are completely self-supporting; the books even show a minute credit balance. H.L.S.

THE DRAMA GROUP

This group was formed immediately after Christmas with the specific intention of training actors for the first School play to be presented in the new Big Hall next December. Unfortunately there has been a lapse in the School's dramatic tradition during the past two years, firstly because the Science Exhibition took precedence over a School production as the major event of 1958-59, and secondly because Big Hall itself has been out of action since last summer during building operations. Nevertheless there has been encouraging evidence of dramatic enthusiasm and talent in the productions staged by School House and Queen's in the gym; and there were no less than ninety-five boys who elected to join the above group at its first meeting.

As the number of plays offering ninety-five parts is severely limited (though we did toy with the idea of 'The Fall of the Bastille' or even 'The October Revolution'), it is perhaps not surprising that a

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ruthless preliminary weeding-out was necessary. The Acting Group was first reduced by a series of auditions to a working company of some thirty boys who are all staying on next year. At the same time a Play-Reading Group of twenty senior boys was formed under a casting committee of 'survivors' from Mr. Burgess's last production. The latter (Brown, D. L., Lavender, Watson, F. I., and Rhodes, J. J.) have done yeoman service in keeping this group together. Three diverse plays have been read during the term on Sunday evenings : Bridie's 'A Sleeping Clergyman', Arthur Miller's The Crucible' and Dylan Thomas's 'Under Milk Wood'. The Scottish, American and Welsh accents, dredged up for these readings, were remarkable, and we apologise to those members of School House who were disturbed by the dramatic climaxes (for the plays were read in the comfort of Mr. Howat's study, and we should like to thank him warmly for his hospitality). Pickard, Brisby, Jones, W. E., Brown, C. L. and Territt, C. J. distinguished themselves in character parts.

Meanwhile the Acting Group was divided into two sections, one under Mr. Holbeche rehearsing Act II of Shaw's `Androcles and the Lion', and the other under Mr. Wilson in a 'production' of Act I of Barrie's The Admirable Crichton'. The first ironic embarrassment which confronted us was an apparent plethora of female and dearth of male leads ! This is borne out by Mr. Wilson's comments on his section : "Unfortunately 'flu stopped the rehearsals of 'Crichton' just at the point when the actors had begun to feel their way into their parts, but even so welcome evidence was provided that there are several promising actors in the Middle School, quite uninhibited and with good ideas of their own, while still able to respond to the producer's suggestions. In particular the performance of Turnbull, Rawson-Lax, Dickie and Quickfall as Lord Loam's three daughters and the kitchen-maid, Tweeny, suggests that there will be no difficulty in filling female parts next year." Fortunately the balance was restored by the virility with which Brown, D. L., Bywater, Lowe, Sykes, P. H. and Kirk, J. M. D. threw themselves into their parts in `Androcles' : indeed Brown, D. L. as Ferrovius seemed intent on impaling as many of the company as possible, including the producer, upon his 'blood-stained sword' (borrowed, as it happens, from the Fencing Club). In general, this section also showed promise, though the nature of the play tempted one or two to over-act.

A useful start, then, has been made in the uphill struggle to create a pool of actors who will not disgrace the School in public performance. The most formidable problem is their lack of experience, which no amount of enthusiasm can quite overcome; and this will make the task of filling the leading roles in particular much more difficult. Moreover the cast will inevitably be on the young side, as the only 'old hands' and some promising Senior boys may well he excluded from performance by their commitments in scholarship work during the Christmas Term. Nevertheless the talent, we believe, is there if only it can be moulded into shape in time.

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